Quebec Appeals Court won’t suspend province’s religious symbols ban | CBC News

Montreal·BreakingQuebec’s religious symbols law will remain in place while the courts deal with whether Bill 21 violates the Constitution, the province’s Court of Appeal ruled today in rejecting a request for a stay. Province’s controversial Bill 21 passes major legal testCBC News · Posted: Dec 12, 2019 2:33 PM ET | Last Updated: December 12A man is seen holding up a sign during a demonstration against Bill 21 in Montreal earlier this year. Quebec’s secularism law bans some public employees from wearing religious symbols in the workplace. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)Quebec’s top court has refused to suspend the province’s controversial ban on religious symbols. The Court of Appeal was ruling on a request to stay sections of the Laicity Act, or Bill 21, pending a constitutionality ruling.In a 2-1 decision issued Thursday afternoon, the court said the law should be allowed to stand while courts work out whether the law violates the Constitution. The decision doesn’t affect the four separate lawsuits filed against Bill 21, claiming the law is unconstitutional. The Laicity Act was passed in June. It bans public school teachers, government lawyers and police officers, among other civil servants, from wearing religious symbols at work. Opponents of the law say it unfairly targets cultural minorities, especially Muslim women who wear the hijab. Teaching is a popular profession for Muslim women in Quebec.  Supporters of the law say it reinforces Quebec’s secular culture and ends long-running debates about how to accommodate minority cultural practices.  In a statement, the National Council of Canadian Muslims, one of the appellants in the case, said it is reviewing its options following the decision. “While we are disappointed with the result, we never thought that fighting for the rights of Quebecers and Canadians would be easy,” said Mustafa Farooq, the organization’s executive director.”   Noa Mendelsohn Aviv of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which is also involved in the legal challenge, said “we are not done fighting this unjust law.”